January Transfer Window: Don’t be obsessed with signing new players

We’re well into the transfer window. It’s something, like dry January, that I have no truck with. Yet still the question comes from almost every Red I meet: who are we going to sign?

The simple answer is I have no idea, nor will I be making any efforts to find out. What I can say is the obvious.

The winter window traditionally does not offer much value. However, if the right player is available at a reasonable price, Liverpool will spend money. If it is someone on the club’s radar for the summer and the fee is acceptable now and/or there is a possibility of another club moving in first, the deal will get done this month.

I know that this will not appease the transfer ultras but it’s the reality. We’re in a good place. Don’t spoil the sense of wellbeing by an obsession with signing new players.

FSGOut Movement and Comparisons with Other Clubs

The FSGOuters are lurking, too. Watch them whinge: “United have got money, Spurs have got cash, Everton are spending…” Nice mantra lads, but I prefer “Liverpool, Liverpool, top of the league…”

I don’t mind people relishing the misery of football. It’s up to them. And there are moments when moaning and complaining is the right thing to do. But time and place, la, time and place.

Liverpool’s First FA Cup Win in 1965

I always contend that Liverpool’s first FA Cup win in 1965 was the moment the balance tipped in the city. After that point, Everton were destined to become the second club on Merseyside.

Winning the cup meant more in those days. Liverpool’s failure to bring home the world’s oldest knockout competition cast a cloud over Anfield that was removed by the 2-1 victory over Leeds United. It was a pivotal point in our history.

For this reason, some of us hold a sentimental attachment to the cup. It’s easy to see why many modern fans don’t care about it, though.

Given the situation in the title race, Sunday’s third-round tie against Arsenal has to be way down the list of priorities. The League Cup has become more important simply because Wembley is only two games away. Europe is still two months distant and we can worry about that in March. The main targets for the immediate future are maintaining or extending the lead at the top of the Premier League and getting past Fulham in the two-legged semi-final. In these circumstances, a defeat by Arsenal should not cause much angst.

Even so, there’s enough quality at the club to put out a side capable of winning at the Emirates. Alexis Mac Allister, Ryan Gravenberch and Cody Gakpo need playing time. Jarrel Quansah and Harvey Elliott will relish the experience.

Arsenal may do us a favour by knocking us out – we’ll only know at the end of May – but it goes against the grain to think defeat is a good thing.

Mikel Arteta’s team are on the ropes, too. It would be satisfying to deepen the gloom in their part of north London.

The game is a sort of no-lose situation. Still, I’d be suspicious of anyone who actively wants the team to get beat. Even if I can see their point. Just don’t draw, Reds.

Jota Penalty Incident

Football scrambles people’s minds, part 10,112.

A goalkeeper makes contact with an attacker’s ankle as the striker goes around him. The attacker falls to the ground. Penalty or no penalty?

Only a complete idiot could claim no penalty. Never, in the history of the game, has an incident like that not led to a spot-kick. Whether a player dives afterwards, “goes down too easily” or loses his balance, it’s still a foul, for God’s sake.

Diogo Jota was clipped by Martin Dubravka. It was a foul. You can’t change the rules of the game just because the transgression was against a team you dislike. In conversations this week with people whom I believed were rational, I’ve found it hard to believe they could take the viewpoint that it wasn’t a penalty. Are they insane?

If Alisson Becker had done the same thing to Alexander Isak, it would have been a penalty. No argument.

So, the next time we are on the receiving end of something similar, remember how stupid Alan Shearer, Ian Wright and everyone else looked over the past few days. Don’t defy logic. Don’t defend the indefensible.

Sometimes you just have to accept a decision that goes against you is correct. That works for us, too. The moral of this story is don’t be a bellend